A new initiative called "New Directions New Orleans" is taking a different approach, a alternative way of examining crime strategies and sentencing reform. Much of the attention is on drug policy and sentencing guidelines for those arrested for non-violent, low level drug offenses.

Even with numbers beginning to fall slightly, Louisiana still leads the nation in the number of people behind bars, and the United States, in turn, has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world.

A new initiative called New Directions New Orleans is taking a different approach, an alternative way of examining crime strategies and sentencing reform. Much of the attention is on drug policy and sentencing guidelines for those arrested for non-violent, low-level drug offenses.

The question being asked is, "Who really needs to be in jail and for how long?"

The one-day conference on Dillard University's campus brought elected officials together with drug policy and criminal justice experts to explore the potential of a health-based approach to drug policy.

Part of that effort is focusing on young adults and intervention, keeping them out of jail in the first place.

"Designing programs for intervention for that late teen, early adult group, I believe, is incredibly important to save a generation of young men and women," said Derwyn Bunton, chief public defender in Orleans Parish.

Virtually no one argues the need for some level of reform in a prison system that has doubled in population over the past two decades. Sentencing issues and racial disparities have been debated for years.

The idea in the conference is to attack the issues from a public health and safety standpoint as preventive medicine.

"If we are serious about the problem, then we need to look at things like that, where we can intervene before they commit the crime," said retired Orleans Chief Criminal Judge Calvin Johnson.

Bunton said such an approach could actually "get at our problems here in New Orleans with crime."

Panelists agreed there are many programs across Louisiana that have shown varying degrees of success, but those programs depend on funding, and some simply go by the wayside when the money runs out.

Experts say Louisiana spends millions of dollars every year to keep prisoners behind bars, money that could be better used elsewhere.